Beyond the Reputation

When a school has a well-known reputation, many expectations can be brought up because of that. The Ivy League is the number one college in some people’s eyes: difficult colleges to get in and are academically rigorous. While that may be true, that can cause the misconception that they teach a different program from other schools. However, biology is biology. Medicine is medicine. Law is law. These are all programs that have the same foundational education.

“We come across that a lot with students coming to ask advice on if they should choose this college or that college because of the name,” TCD career counselor Michelle Miklinski said.

The reputation talk may cloud the judgment of incoming students. They may think that because of the name, that college is the one to pick. The amount of popularity surrounding an institution does not always mean that the quality of the institution adds up with it.

In an article by the Evidence Base, Juan Saavedra studies why college reputation matters to students and employers. They conclude that reputation matters to employers because it is easy for employers to find pre-screened candidates, especially all students at the top colleges who have high college entry scores. 

“I think, to an extent, [reputation] matters,” Northern Illinois University (NIU) transfer advisor Alex Torres said. “But I think the level of experience that a student got at a specific institution within their specific field [is more] indicative of how successful a student is going to be within the career”

Having a reputation can be an inaccurate picture of the student’s abilities to be in the workplace. There are other factors other than a person’s academic abilities that matter. The more employers rely on students with a higher reputation, the less they take into consideration students’ abilities to do the job.

According to Torres, some professions like nursing where they look at reputation are where reputation does matter. However, for the most part, it does not. A student’s resume should be about the level of experience that a student gained rather than where their education was. 

“It is not until you get on the job that you’re really gonna learn,” Miklinski said. 

Being able to check off that a student is qualified with on-the-job experience is more valuable than just having the education for it. It is the experience that goes beyond the reputation.